


Serein

by bayouen



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen, I wanted to write Reisen and Seiran fighting, its delicious, just in case, this has elements of ptsd and emetophobia triggers so, warning!!!, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 02:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8351995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bayouen/pseuds/bayouen
Summary: A strange enomoly, the maddening red, the years of war a ghost that haunts the mind as memories of a past long ago, but never forgotten.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know man, I just don't know, enjoy my angst

The earthian air was poison strangulating her throat at every breath. The misty summer air created a haze in the trees and the burning heat was etched on the droplets of sweat on her face. As part of the elite Earth Recon Unit, she was used to entering harsh unknown territories. Dancing along the edge of death was nothing but horse play for her, as she was one of the best commanders in the Lunarian military. Seiran pride herself on making sure every one of her jobs was thoroughly cleaned to present to her leaders in a tightly wrapped bow. As it was with every other commander before her.

“All except one,” she whispered to herself.

 

One of the soldiers looked towards her but she ignored them and rallied the rest towards her to commence the operation. Her mission was to purify the earth of its dirty inhabitants. Seiran had no problem with that, she was used to getting her hands dirty. She had no particular feelings for the blue spear that encompassed most of the skies of the Lunerian nation. She heard the stories that’ve been passed around, mostly the tales Ringo had of the delicacies that could be found there.

“Each team will spread out and purify a portion of the area,” Seiran said extending her arm for emphasis.

“Circle around and report back to me at 1600” Seiran’s small, cold voice could barely be heard over the cicadas waking from their slumber. Seiran ran forth towards the bamboo forest, dismissing the soldiers to their duties. Seiran patrolled the area with her unit, combining the bamboo shoots with urgency. She wanted to hurry off this disgusting planet as fast as she can. No matter how much Ringo tried to dress up this planet, Seiran couldn’t help but feel everything was...off.

Chaos.

No order.

Wild primitive creatures filled the area.

She can’t stop feeling sick over the slightly tainted atmosphere.

Stop.

Seiran stopped herself, catching a stray bamboo plant to hold her balance.

 

“Damn it,” she said, her hand cradling her head as she tried to stood up straight.

Calm down.

 

Seiran continued running forward, the bamboo shoots becoming green blobs in the corner of her eye. She came to an immediate halt, however, when she noticed a young rabbit child scoping the grass for lunch. She had a bright blue dress and wild wavy brown hair messily clumped together in some sad excuse of a bow.

The rabbit girl looked towards Seiran and smiled, extending her hand towards her.

“Lookit”, she said, “there’s so many carrots here!”

“Carrots?”

Are these the sickly orange sticks she’s shoving in Seiran’s face?

Seiran scoffed. They looked mothing like moon carrots, a beautiful ghostly white treat with a bitter taste.

Those look like they might make Seiran sick.

She glared.

“We got some pumpkins back home with the others”, the girl mentioned before going back to the grass. Unbeknownst to her, Seiran had her hand gripping her decaying mallet tightly.

“They’re really plump and juicy! Almost as much as our waterm-”

Swing.

Crash.

 

The girl fell in the grass, a pool of blood quickly forming around her broken skull. Her body contorted oddly, twitching as liquid seeped out of the rabbit’s mouth. One of her eyes was crushed on impact, the other wiggling wildly, as if it was a hand trying to grab sonething to tether itself back to life.

For good measure, Seiran sent her hammer flying again, and again, and again, until the rabbit girl’s head was now an unidentifiable mesh of blood and bone.

A foot soldier came up to Seiran, surveying the area.

“Spray this area, decay all life here,” Seiran ordered.

And the foot soldier left.

Seiran got herself ready to go, wiping the blood off her mallet the best she could.

However.

 

Seiran’s eyes immediately shot up to the sky. The rain fell without a cloud in sight. Something’s not right.

She feels it.

The chaotic paranoia of being watched.

Someone's here.

Seiran scanned the area, cursing in anger as the bamboo shoots obscure her opponent.

“It’s a moon rabbit…?” Seiran said before a girl in uniform jumped out of hiding, landing in the clearing of the forest.

The insanity the curses and envelops someone into a euphoria of madness. Every moon rabbit can harness this ability. Seiran knew this feeling like an old friend.

Or an old nightmare.

“How is there another moon rabbit on Earth, we’re the only-”

Wait.

A moon rabbit on Earth.

And then it hit her.

Damn.

Isn’t this interesting?

 

Like a bolt of lightning, a moon rabbit appeared in front of Seiran. Her hair was long, her face was round and delicate, her clothes foreign but oddly familiar.

Seiran never thought she’d see a storybook legend.

The Lunatic War Traitor, Reisen Udongien Inaba.

The moon ( _‘more like Earth’_ Seiran thinks) rabbit looked at the intruder with ferocity. Reisen eyes widen when she noticed the red blood around her feet. The blood came from a rabbit girl, her head bashed in until her face became an unrecognizable mess.

One of Tewi’s friends.

Reisen looked at the assailant, noticing the blood spatter adorning her face. The grip on her mallet became tighter when she saw her presence. She could see the blood rabbit lick the splatter that etched near her lips.

Disguising.

 

Reisen chuckled darkly, “Look’s like we found the murderer, did we not?” She asked, though it was more of a threat than a question.

Seiran continued staring her down. There was a malice in her eyes that Reisen didn’t quite understand. Reisen could tell she was a soldier too, the emptiness of her eyes and the ease of creating death in her path. Only someone who lived the harsh reality of a Lunarian military Soldier could have those eyes. Either way, she can’t let something like this go.

Not anymore.

 

“Why did you do this?” Reisen snarled, eying the bloody corpse of the rabbit. Her dress stained purple by the clumps of blood seeping into the blue garment. Poor thing.

“What does it matter?” Seiran said, her eyes reflected the brightness of a sun, becoming an even maddening bright red.

“There’s plenty of these earth rabbits, what would you care about it?” Seiran asked, eying Reisen slowly.

“I mean, what’s one rabbit compared to the hundreds of others you killed,” She smiled as she saw Reisen recoil in shock.

“That’s...that’s not-”

Everyone know’s her story.

From the capital to the schools.

 

_Everyone knows You_.

 

“...The crooked ear traitor,” Seiran said, in slight awe.

Reisen looked at Seiran curiously, “The what?”

“Oh you haven’t heard?” Seiran mocked, letting her teeth gleam in the light.

“You’re quite the star back home, everyone knows your story,” Seiran began, sitting on a nearby rock, the end of her mallet placed on the rabbit corpse, adding another painful stab to Reisen’s already weakened heart.

“The previous commander of the Earth Recon Unit, the commander that deserted her army mid-battle, causing the death of her whole squad,” Seiran spoke as if she was reading off a book.

“Honestly, you're the archetype of how not to be a commander,” Seiran continued oblivious to Reisen’s shaken form.

“I always wanted to meet you,” Seiran said with a smile, “Because I needed to know what was in your fucking brain when you thought of deserting us”.

Reisen continued to shake.

 

She remembers the overzealous nationalism that overtook the Lunar capital.

She remembers the smell of gunpowder filling her nostrils everyday during training.

She remembers the beautiful princesses of the moon coding her, filling her with sweet words and playful kisses as they send her off to war.

The long hours, the numerous days of rigorous training, no sleep, the wars she went to, the blood that was on her hands, the blood that never comes off.

She remembers becoming a commander in the shortest amount of time for a moon rabbit after leading a rather successful fight against some rebel units hiding in the northern sectors. She was even praised by the great Sagume Kishin, one the highest honors a soldier can have.

But there was something else she remembered. Long hair like hers, a mother of two, a young girl who just got married, a slightly younger girl who called Reisen “Reirei” and held her hand when she was nervous, an older moon rabbit many referred to as “mom”.

She remembers them all and how their charred bodies contorted and shook before her eyes.

Long hair colored in blood, faces burnt to an unrecognizable degree showing hallowed bone and dust, a body ripped open with organs in plain view, discoloring and rotting in the air. A severed hand that even in the dust and smoke she can barely identify a wedding ring.

Reisen was a soldier but she was never a warrior.

 

_And this was a war._

 

“Wake up!” Seiran yelled, “The hell are you doing!?”

Reisen collapsed to her knees. Seiran noticed the tan colored bile that seeped out her mouth even with Reisen’s poor ability to cover it with her already stained hands. Reisen began shaking more violently, her breathing becoming short and raspy, as if she was slowly drowning. She can’t help but vomit again. She can still smell it. The smell of rotting flesh.

The sight of bodies still twitching.

The small wrangled body that tried to reach for her hand.

Reisen fell to the floor and shook, bile and foam escaping her mouth. Her clothes soaked in mud and vomit.

“Oh, I guess I broke you?” Seiran said in a mocking tone once again before gripping her hammer tightly in her grasp, “Don’t worry, I’ll help fix you”.

Reisen tried to twitch away but Seiran’s foot landed on her back, stopping her instantly.

Reisen looked up at Seiran coughing.

“Please...please listen”.

Oh, she was pleading now?

Ok, this might be _fun_.

 

She lifts up her foot and watches Reisen’s disjointed form lift herself up from the ground.

“Please…” Reisen said, the tears already forming in her eyes, “I know of what I did, I’ve stared the grim reaper in her eyes and tried to forget the sins that I’ve committed”

She remembers the abundance of cherry blossoms, dark liquefied, the river Styx, screaming when she thought she saw a familiar face, the judge of Hell’s gaze as hot as the tortuous fires of the underworld, seeing all of her sins like an open book. The stern lecture that was woven into her heart.

She also remembers viewing the moon with Eirin and Tewi.

Her head on Eirin’s lap.

The faint words of “It’s ok” beat in her eardrums and lulls her to sleep.

 

Reisen wiped her eyes before continuing, “What I did was selfish…,” Seiran rolled her eyes, “I know that, but what I wanted more than anything was to be a normal girl”

Seiran scoffed loudly.

_Are you kidding me._

“Was that…” Her voice broke, “s-so wrong?”

_Yes_.

“I deserve to live!”

_No you don’t._

“I didn’t want to see anyone else die!”

_Too bad_.

“I am a coward, selfish bastard!”

_Couldn’t have said it better myself._

“I shouldn’t be forgiven-”

“You won’t”

Seiran held the hammer above her head.

But stop cold in her tracks.

“But...I promised to live for those who can't!”

There was a gun pointed straight at her left eye.

Damn it.

 

“I have to live through my mistakes,” Reisen continued, her eyes filled with passion and strength, “I have to keep going forward and find peace”.

“Peace,” Seiran said, “What kind of bull are you spreading?!

“One day I’ll forgive myself, but for now I’ll live with my sins, I’ll never forget them,” Reisen clocks the gun, “So I won’t let you mock me and their sacrifice!”

The bullet shot out, grazing Seiran’s ear.

Damn it.

Where did the weakling go?

She was crumbling on the floor before.

She couldn’t have faked that.

...could she?

“You…” Seiran was overcome with fury and swung ther hammer with all her might. It crashed onto a rock where Reisen was once crouching besides. She cursed under her breath and turned to continue her attack.

But then she noticed.

There weren’t two rabbits here.

There were hundreds.

Where did they come from!?

 

“Tewi?” Reisen said looking at the only small rabbit dressed in pink.

“This is Earth rabbit territory ya kno!” Tewi hopped forward and danced around Seiran. Seeing the blue haired rabbits confusion only made Tewi laughed harder.

“Oh yeah like, Reisers here counts as a Earth rabbit,” Her voice lowers to a whisper, “She hasn't been unionized so don't give her a hard time, war veteran in all”.

“What..are you talking abo-”

“Oh wait a minute, we missin someone?”

Tewi turned around and faked counting all the surrounding rabbits.

“Gosh where's Aika?” Tewi immediately turned to Seiran, tapping her chin.

“Hmmmmm….methinks you know something!” She pointed dramatically at Seiran, her voice screeching to the heavens, “YOU’RE THE MURDERER! DUN DUN DUNN!”

She’s mocking me.

She’s fucking mocking me.

I want to kill her.

Seiran was about to grip her hammer but stopped.

Wait why did she-

Oh.

Seiran looked around, did more rabbits came?! Where were her soilders? Why didn't they take down these rabbits like they w-

“What’cha looking for your friends?”

Shit.

Tewi Stopped smiling. Seiran became frightened.

“They’re not coming”.

_They're not coming_.

What the hell is this!?

“Do you want to join them?”

_Do you want to join them_.

Hell no.

The rabbits inched closer.

This is dangerous.

She needs to get away.

Seiran has to get away,

Get away get away GET AWAY.

 

Seiran ran into the clearing, running for her life.

Those damn rabbits, those damn rabbits, those goddamn rabbits.

Seiran kept running, ignoring the beaten and battered bodies of her associates. She kept running past the bamboo sticks, past the dense woods, past the thickly fogged lake. She wanted to get away from this damn planet and all the inhabitants. Damn them and damn this mission,

**The mission.**

It was then that Seiran realized what she did.

She deserted her post.

She deserted her army.

Why did she do that!?

She remembers looking up at the sky and seeing the blueness of the sky, the whiteness of her skin, the bright red piercing eyes of Reisen Udongein Inaba.

"So that's how you became a commander so fast.."

It was only for a moment.

But she won from the start didn't she.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> \--epilogue;;
> 
> Seiran managed to find some other soldiers that were staked out in an old cave nearby. More deserters, disgusting.
> 
> “You’re no better,” Seiran said to herself, voice cold and empty.
> 
> As they were preparing to disembark, Seiran decided to take a bit of a walk. She was used to the Earthian air now (still hated it) so she decided to do one more treck as if to remind herself how much she hated this planet.
> 
> Seiran they saw her fri-associate, Ringo, sleeping under a tree.
> 
> What the hell.
> 
> Her clothes were tattered and she had bruises on her body. She was put on recon duty too?
> 
> Looked like it went as well as hers.
> 
> Ringo opened her eyes and gave Seiran a tired smile,”Hey cap’n”
> 
> Seiran remained quiet, her eyes looking off into the sky solemnl.
> 
> Ringo, unsure of what to make of that, gave an awkward “Hey you ok?”
> 
> “I lost.”
> 
> “Huh? Lost your mallet?”
> 
> “I lost a battle and ran” She said coldly.
> 
> “I deserted my army”
> 
> Ringo looked up in shock.
> 
> “Whoa is this a dream? I hope so!”
> 
> Seiran wanted to hit her over the head at that stupid comment. She wanted to laugh or snort or angrily reply ‘Yeah, more like a nightmare,”
> 
> But all she did was run to her side and cry in her arms.
> 
> Ringo, slightly taken aback, whispered “Wow, this really must be a dream if Seiran is crying,”
> 
> “Shut up, just shut up!” Seiran said in-between sobs. I’m just like her, I’m a traitor just like her!”
> 
> Seiran’s sobs became louder so Ringo lightly patted her back. She has no idea what brought this on but she wasn't complaining.
> 
> “Hey now, I heard u were ambushed!” Ringo said, shaken “I would've ran too, crazy your whole team g-”
> 
> “I DON’T RUN!” Seiran screamed, knocking Ringo back in shock.
> 
> “I WORK MY WHOLE LIFE FOR THIS CHANCE, TO PROVE I’M A GREAT COMMANDER,” Seiran continued to scream, her eyes wet with tears, “BUT I’M NO BETTER, I’M NO BETTER THAN A TRAITOR-”
> 
> Ringo went back to hugging Seiran. Her sobs were a lot more quieter but still audible.
> 
> “Some of us really ain't cut out for war…”
> 
> I guess not.
> 
> I guess not..


End file.
